As students, faculty members, and advocates for survivors across the country, we strive each day to reduce instances of gender-based violence, yet the number of students who experience violence is still too high. Because it is our collective responsibility to work toward creating communities that will support survivors of violence, we urge you to strongly enforce Title IX, the federal law that outlaws sex discrimination in education, during your time in office.

Gender-based violence affects students across the country daily, whether they are receiving a friend’s tearful phone call, sitting down with a peer trying to navigate what happened to them, or recounting personal stories. Over the past five years, student activists have used their rights under Title IX to transform how schools and the federal government address gender-based violence.

However, despite the progress we have made, violence continues to imperil students’ access to education. Of college undergraduates in the United States, an estimated 24 percent of trans and gender nonconforming students, 23 percent of cisgender women, and 5.4 percent of cisgender men are sexually assaulted.[1] These statistics carry over to graduate school, where a similar percentage of students are sexually assaulted and over a third of female graduate students are sexually harassed.[2] And perhaps most alarming, many K-12 students experience gender-based violence, with studies finding that 10 percent of female high school students experienced sexual violence in the last year.[3],[4]

This violence can have devastating consequences. In the wake of an assault, survivors may withdraw from their education and struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety. Without support and accommodations, survivors may see their grades plummet or drop out of school entirely, forfeiting thousands of dollars in tuition.[5]

No student should experience gender-based violence, nor should schools ignore threats to a student’s safety or ability to learn. We will not rest until the rights and protections of all students, especially survivors of gender-based violence, are guaranteed. Accordingly, we urge you to commit to the following principles that we have found most critical in our activism:

ENFORCE TITLE IX’S PROTECTIONS FOR ALL SURVIVORS

● Ensure that schools adopt gender-inclusive definitions of gender-based violence so all students, regardless of their gender identity or the gender identity of their perpetrator(s), feel comfortable reporting to the institution.

● Explicitly recognize that Title IX prohibits transphobia (and other discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression) as a form of sex discrimination. Trans and gender nonconforming students should not be denied access to any facility — including bathrooms and dorm rooms — on account of their gender identity.

● Recognize that harassment and coercion take many forms, including targeting individuals based on their immigration status (such as threatening to report an undocumented survivor to immigration enforcement authorities), threatening to “out” someone as queer or trans, and purposefully using incorrect gender pronouns (or otherwise misgendering someone).

ACTIVELY IMPLEMENT PREVENTION MEASURES FOR GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

● Implement mandatory yearly trainings for all students to educate them about their Title IX rights and address rape culture on campus.

● Ensure all faculty, staff, and administrators are trained in gender-based violence prevention and Title IX procedures.

● Provide ongoing, free counseling to students who experience gender-based violence. Students should be able to access this without filing a formal complaint.

● Provide students with free medical attention for health problems stemming from gender-based violence, including STI testing, emergency contraception, and treatment for injuries.

● Grant students who have experienced gender-based violence academic accommodations, including excusing class absences, extending assignment deadlines, providing notetaking services, and allowing incompletes/course retakes at no penalty (which means fully reimbursing tuition, room, and board for an incomplete semester), regardless of whether or not the student files a formal complaint.

● Help international students who need to take time off as a result of experiencing gender-based violence secure local living arrangements during their time off, especially if the student is from a country explicitly targeted in Executive Orders that could prevent them from re-entering the U.S.

● Guarantee immediate safety accommodations, including moving a respondent’s housing (and a complainant’s housing, if the complainant wishes) at no cost, granting and enforcing no-contact directives, moving a respondent out of classes shared with the complainant, and potentially enacting other measures such as adding additional door locks or security cameras free of charge, regardless of whether or not the student files a formal complaint.

● Prioritize minimizing all accommodation burdens on the complainant.

● Ensure the school has a designated Title IX coordinator who does not have other jobs that could pose a conflict of interest.

UPHOLD FAIR PROCESS FOR ALL STUDENTS

● Continue to recognize preponderance of the evidence as the appropriate standard of proof in campus gender-based violence adjudications.

● Reiterate that schools should not force survivors to “work it out” with their perpetrator in mediation proceedings.

● Ensure survivors are not punished for violations of school policies, including (but not limited to) drug/alcohol policies and celibacy honor codes, when they report an assault.

● Investigate all complaints of violence, discrimination, and harassment committed on campus or involving a student, faculty, or staff member; these investigations should remain completely independent from law enforcement as to protect Black students and students of color, undocumented students, trans students, and others who are vulnerable to state violence.[6]

● Hire an adequate number of staff members who deal with gender-based violence on campus so complainants and respondents are never assigned the same case manager.

● Establish a clear process for reporting conflicts of interest at any level of the investigative process; this reporting process must include review by an unbiased third party.

● Give all staff members involved in investigating and adjudicating gender-based violence cases training in cultural competency so they can adequately address the needs of Black students and students of color, queer and trans students, students with disabilities, undocumented students, low-income students, and all others who are at a higher risk for experiencing violence.

● Ensure all students involved in the school gender-based violence process are granted the same rights as other students involved in the process (e.g. right to an advisor).

● Provide students with the option of having a no-cost attorney-advisor during the school gender-based violence process so all students, regardless of socioeconomic status, have equal access to legal support.

● Allow students to maintain a full and fair record of gender-based violence investigations and proceedings, including audio recordings if necessary.

● Release anonymized data each semester stating how many cases have been heard, what judgement was reached in each case, and what sanctions were implemented, in order to ensure that investigatory bodies are held accountable for prompt investigations and proportional sanctions.

● Ensure a third-party appeals process for students whose cases have potentially been mishandled.

INCREASE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE OFFICE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS (OCR)

● Maintain retaliation prohibitions that protect survivors, student activists and journalists, federal and civil Title IX complainants, and those taking part in campus gender-based violence proceedings.

● Publicly commit to protecting undocumented students who file Title IX complaints with OCR so they do not have to fear doing so would lead to their deportation; OCR should remain completely separate from government agencies that enforce immigration laws and be prevented from sharing information about a student’s citizenship status with other parties.

● Increase OCR’s budget and staffing so all Title IX complaints can be fully investigated and resolved within 180 days.

We hope we can count on you to protect the rights of students and enforce Title IX.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Advocates for Choice (Knox College)

Advocates for Survivors of Sexual Assault (Pomona College)

African Students Association (Columbia University)

Ali Forney Center

Alliance for Peaceful Action (Knox College)

Alliance for Sexual Assault Prevention (Babson College)

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. (Duke University)

The American Association of University Women at GW (George Washington University)